A LARGER CONVERSATION

PART OF A LARGER CONVERSATION

So I was wondering if the blogs I write are actually part of a larger conversation, or if indeed they are like a grain of sand on the litter strewn beach in Southern California.  Surf and Sand and who has time for the larger conversation, when the sun is out 365 days a year, and everybody is texting on their phones, in short bursts.  Gets me to wondering, where has everybody gone, and when I see heads down, looking at their watch or smart phone on their wrist, and where the invisible part of each of us, now resides.


 

People, a few: do leave comments on my blogs, and even less send me private mail, expanding on the subject, mentioned in the daily blog.  But for the most part, its not a message that needs expanding on.  Is not really a group conversation, not one person to another privately responding in any way that invites a greater sense of voice in our digital community.  Digital Community and wonder if the 1 minute video of song or dance actually is a conversation, I have not yet joined?  


 

I don’t understand a lot of what is passing as intelligent messaging these days.  Hashtags and Twitter one-liners.  Makes me wonder what I need to do, to make this a meaningful part of my day.  Seems as if its just a developing style for people on the run, too busy to actually sit across from each other, have a cup of coffee or tea, and share the moments of their day with each other.   It may be that all of this actually occurs, and I am just unaware as time runs out, and the hours we once shared in conversation, are now nothing more than tracer briefs on somebody’s database, filed under the heading:  Home Land Security.



Post anything from anywhere.  Customize everything.  Find and follow those things or people you love, and hope that for the better, technology has actually improved my circumstances and life.  Clean sweep.  Everything converges into part of a larger conversation, and woke up this morning wondering if I will ever know, what others are really saying to me, or about me, or just discussing in a general way, for one moment in time, before it all fades away and we move on to something more current and more interesting than what I had for lunch, who thinks its not okay to color my hair RED, and how that doesn’t really fit with the guy with multiple tattoos under his business suit.  Substance and Image, and wonder if all that is part of a larger conversation I find myself having in a blog, that nobody has time to read?



Not saying that I think you are ignoring me, or even that I am being left out of the essential messaging system.  Use to be that I might ask you for your phone number, and within 48 hours, call you.  Now its instant messaging.  A quick hello, and a faster goodbye than I ever imagined in 1983.  All of this is quite impressive.  Tweets and Twitters from outer space, and I am more simple than all of that, as I wonder, will I be seeing you today and will we meet and have tea or coffee and a little time to talk.  Talk.  About what is important.  Will there be time for that.  I wonder.



 

Identifying a conversation.  Responding in conversation.  Involved in a silent conversation.  Virtual Sit-Down.  What is all of this?  Is it really happening, or is this a new technologized-way of socializing and networking, nothing more than linked computers and devices, driving us to articulate but not engage in a physical way.  Face to face, and I can’t remember the last time I saw you.   Missing something here, and would like to make it a part of a larger conversation, but realize.  Its not happening.  And I am not sure why.



Maybe this is just me.  Lamenting for things that no longer exist.  Ships passing in the night, on a vast sea of indifference.  End of Life and its not something we talk about.  How yesterday was so exciting, and how today, it just isn’t.  Speed of Light messaging.  Conversations on the edge of darkness, and I wonder how my day passed, and we never kissed.  I like intimacy.  I like the feeling of you, next to me.  But its been a long time since that has occurred.  Now you are nothing more than someone of the periphery of my life.  Somebody I think about, but am now reduced to second guessing, and validated thoughts and occurrence, when I read your email or instant message or comment at the bottom of a screen. 



 

Not saying this doesn’t work.   Not saying its not efficient use of time and resources.  Liked it when we had time for each other.  Liked it when the small talk could be identified as personal chatter.  But now, it all flows together, but not in the way I expected, when I first meet you, and fell in love with the look and the feel and the special messaging that took place, while holding hands and saying very little.  All part of a larger conversation worth having, but seldom occurring for me today. 




And I wonder why.  Was it something I said?  Did I chase you away?  Not personal.  It just happens.  Time is a scarce resource.  Be happy that I take the time to email, or comment on your blogs.  People are busy.  True.  True.    Be happy.  Now go away, the phone is ringing.  I have things to do.